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Hate Didn’t Elect Donald Trump; People Did

Over the summer, my little sister had a soccer tournament at Bloomsburg University, located in central Pennsylvania. The drive there took about three hours and many of the towns we drove through shocked me. The conditions of these towns were terrible. Houses were falling apart. Bars and restaurants were boarded up. Scrap metal was thrown across front lawns. White, plastic lawn chairs were out on the drooping front porches. There were no malls. No outlets. Most of these small towns did not have a Walmart, only a dollar store and a few run down thrift stores. In almost every town, there was an abandoned factory.

My father, who was driving the car, turned to me and pointed out a Trump sign stuck in a front yard, surrounded by weeds and dead grass. “This is Trump country, Tori,” He said. “These people are desperate, trapped for life in these small towns with no escape. These people are the ones voting for Trump.”

My father understood Trump’s key to success, even though it would leave the media and half of America baffled and terrified on November 9th. Trump’s presidency has sparked nationwide outrage, disbelief and fear.

And, while I commend the passion many of my fellow millennials feels towards minorities and the fervency they oppose the rhetoric they find dangerous, I do find many of their fears unfounded. I don’t find their fears unfounded because I negate the potency of racism. Or the potency of oppression. Or the potency of hate.

I find these fears unfounded because these people groups have an army fighting for them. This army is full of celebrities, politicians, billionaires, students, journalists and passionate activists. Trust me, minorities will be fine with an army like this defending them.

And, I would argue, that these minorities aren’t the only ones who need our help. The results of Tuesday night did not expose a red shout of racism but a red shout for help.

Journalists are now reporting that Trump won because rural America voted for him in droves. I see a lot of journalists reporting about the what, the who, and the how of this election, but not many are tackling the why. I do not at all feel qualified enough to discuss the why of this, but I don’t see anybody bringing up the astounding poverty found in rural America and that the desperation found in these areas is what prompted the rise of Donald Trump. Perhaps this will inspire more intelligent people than I to look into this more deeply.

It’s easy to point to these small, impoverished towns and name racism, the second amendment or plain stupidity as the only reasons why these people would ever vote for a man like Donald Trump. I find this to be highly intellectually dishonest, though. To write this off as simple racism is to ignore the very real and very heartbreaking struggles small town America faces.

The majority of rhetoric going around says that if you’re white, you have an inherent advantage in life. I would argue that, at least for the members of these small impoverished communities, their whiteness only harms them as it keeps their immense struggles out of the public eye.

The most well-known ailment of the rural Appalachian mountain region is mountain dew mouth, which is the rotting of teeth caused by an overconsumption of Mountain Dew. This soda is prevalent in Appalachian culture because it’s cheaper than milk, Mountain Dew originated in the Appalachian region and the water in these areas is often too polluted to drink. In extreme cases, mothers have even been documented feeding their babies Mountain Dew out of bottles.

Those living in rural America don’t even have access to many of the same services those living in urban America do. This includes health services, like clinics and hospitals, and social services.

Lauren Gurley, a freelance journalist, wrote a piece that focuses on why politicians, namely liberal ones, have written off rural America completely. In this column she quotes Lisa Pruitt, a law professor at the University of California who focuses many of her studies on life in rural America. Pruitt argues that mainstream America ignores poverty stricken rural America because the majority of America associates rural poverty with whiteness. She attributes America’s lack of empathy towards white poverty to the fact that black poverty is attributed to institutionalized racism, while white people have no reason to be poor, unless poor choices were made.

For arguably the first time since President Kennedy in the 1960’s, Donald Trump reached out to rural America. Trump spoke out often about jobs leaving the US, which has been felt deeply by those living in the more rural parts of the country. Trump campaigned in rural areas, while Clinton mostly campaigned in cities. Even if you do not believe Trump will follow through on his promises, he was still one of the few politicians who focused his vision on rural communities and said “I see you, I hear you and I want to help you.”

Trump was the “change” candidate of the 2016 election. Whether Trump proposed a good change or bad change is up to you, but it can’t be denied that Trump offered change. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was the establishment candidate. She ran as an extension of Obama and, even though this appealed to the majority of voters located in cities, those in the country were looking for something else. Obama’s policies did little to help alleviate the many ailments felt by those in rural communities. In response, these voters came out for the candidate who offered to “make America great again.”

I believe that this is why rural, white communities voted for Trump in droves. I do not believe it was purely racism. I believe it is because no one has listened to these communities’ cries for help. The media and our politicians focus on the poverty and deprivation found in cities and, while bringing these issues to light is immensely important, we have neglected another group of people who are suffering. It is not right to brush off all of these rural counties with words like “deplorable” and not look into why they might have voted for Trump with such desperation.

It was not a racist who voted for Trump, but a father who has no possible way of providing a steady income for his family. It was not a misogynist who voted for Trump, but a mother who is feeding her baby mountain dew out of a bottle. It was not a deplorable who voted for Trump, but a young man who has no possibility of getting out of a small town that is steadily growing smaller.

The people America has forgotten about are the ones who voted for Donald Trump. It does not matter if you agree with Trump. It does not matter if you believe that these people voted for a candidate who won’t actually help them. What matters is that the red electoral college map was a scream for help, and we’re screaming racist so loud we don’t hear them. Hatred didn’t elect Donald Trump; People did.

You words are very thoughtful and have a definite ring of truth to them. You speak sweetly, rather than full of hate, so most will listen and believe all you say without checking for facts, but there was definitely some information that was left out. Obama, and in turn HRC, did acknowledge this very sad and disturbing fact that was happening in the rural towns that had an environment-killing business as the foundation for their entire way of life. At the beginning of his presidency, Obama visited these dying towns and asked the people what could bring them back to life as an alternative to what had been. Of course, they wanted their coal business back to what it used to be, but that business has been declining since the 1990’s. That’s the thing about coal…when it’s gone, it’s gone. It does not grow back. When Obama’s administration pushed for more money for these towns to retrain them and turn their empty factories in to booming businesses again, he was blocked completely by the Republican held house and senate. See the article below for the successes they did have and a better explanation.

Michele. I read the article and it did not support what you say. I grew up in coal country in southern Ohio. Jackson county went for Hillary Clinton. Other counties went for trump. They have been poor for a long time. And will likely remain poor. Ms Sanders excellent article points out many reasons why. They do feel beaten down. They do feel left out. In the end there is still plenty of coal there. Plenty of work. But dc bureaucracy says it isn’t good enough so the people there have no jobs and either grow pot or starve.

Well written article but wrong. Rural America and the rest of us voted for Trump solely because the corruption in DC is out of hand. The rest voted for hillary because they care little for America. They over look corruption because they want there agenda of pc propagated at any cost. They want for themselves, not whats best for USA. They over look the worst corrupt political party and worst candidate corrupt to the core without care of anyone but themselves. It is totally what is offered, govt handouts, yes even to the rich. Why do you think people like Soros and Buffet support them it is the backing to get richer at our expense not the good of this country. Yes we voted out corruption and will be going after the rest in coming elections.

Stop! People like you are so misinformed. The Congress is controlled by Republicans for the last six years. They wrote the tax bills that benefited the well off. They are oppose to infrastructure spending and human capital investing.

Why is it the west coast states and Colorado to name a few are doing so well? They all have state legislative bodies that went their own way to make their states great despite the dysfunctional Congress.

You must live in a state with a republican controlled state legislative body that failed you. They are responsible for providing the tools to keep all regions in your state competitive. Don’t look to D.C.for savior but your own state.

It’s up to the rural folks to make it happen. If you can’t, U-Haul is needed.

So when the coal dwindles so does other jobs. There’s no money to support other businesses therefore businesses move out. Get your facts straight. It’s not that people won’t do other work besides coal. There is absolutely nothing left. So instead of bashing them help them get industry. Continuing to push people into niche will keep them there.

Telling people to become informed. I’m not sure that you’re very well informed. Again, when people aren’t making money they don’t spend money. But yet again everyone wants to put them in a niche and keep them there.

“In Southern regions, like Appalachia,” – Appalachia is not a Southern region. It extends all the way into the Finger Lakes of Central New York. Indeed the poverty you witnessed in Central PA is part of the challenge facing the Appalachian Regional Commission. Sad to say the rural poor of Pennsylvania voted for a man who has no clue how to alleviate their suffering. The coal jobs ain’t coming back, neither are the steel jobs. They’ve been duped and now we will all suffer the consequences.

Mostly compelling but to be honest, it was hard to finish after; “Trust me, minorities will be fine with an army like this defending them.” Defend them from what?

Well, trust me. Minorities will be far better off with a president, Senate and House that enacts and signs laws that don’t perticularly give a damn about their race.

I suspect the young black Americans experiencing the highest unemployment rate in generations will find work at businesses no longer strapped with burdensome tax rates and endless regulations. They may well resent ‘their president’ (for whom black Americans voted for as almost a solid voting bloc) being gone but they can damn well do it with dignity with their paychecks.

I live in a rural southern town. You’re right. While one candidate labeled anyone who didn’t support her a “deplorable” while her husband labeled us as “rednecks”. I label us as Americans. Who owns farms and we do our part by feeding America. Our healthcare premiums are now more than our house payments and we spent over $6K last year on medical bills on top of our premiums. You see in rural America, 6K can break a family.

That’s why we voted for Trump. We aren’t deplorable. We are an American family just trying to make it.

Kyle, you make a good point. However, the negative labels that we would or would not give, the exact definition, the exact boundaries of meaning – these are shifting concepts. They are relative to each person’s preferences. I respect your definition, but personally I find the Democrat Party has taken advantage of poor hard-working labor group. The DNC assumed they would always have “labor’s” vote and then the DNC gave us an incompetent Barak Obama. He was not a true friend for “Labor.” So Trump capitalized on this disenfranchised group. Small towns are a big part of the DNC’s omission. Deplorable: both party system’s ruling elite.

“Deplorables”: the smug urban snowflake class of fools who could not survive a week after a natural disaster. Deplorable: women who fight for grown women’s rights, while advocating the murder of unborn women, and they also TOTALLY ignore the abuse of women in Arab countries. Many of Arab women are treated WORSE than black women in 1860 to 1960. So “deplorable” fits many groups, depending on what you focus on.
I _DO_ know rural people who are racist, but I think the vast majority are against racism and agree with MLK: judge a person by the content of his/her character. So these people see the snowflakes or the Women’s Lib group, as LACKING CHARACTER. Many would say Barak Obama is a selfish prig, while many black conservatives are American heroes for detailing the many sins of BHO.

I know rural people who voted for BHO because the other guy SMELLS TOO MUCH like the snowflake or the Libber. Rural America can not be broad brushed with assumed colors of stupid, “low information,” backward, bigoted, or out-of-touch.

Why can’t rural communities solve their issues? If rural communities are being left behind, isn’t that the domain of their respective state legislative body who failed to keep up with the demands of the new 21 st century economy that states like Cali were able to successfully conquer? Pres. Obama was not responsible for the demise of rural areas.

As for labor, they slit their own throats when they voted GOP on cultural issues that attacked the dem base. As for the people of color in urban areas, many are doing better than the rural folks. They have jobs